City of The Lost
by Shane Leath
Summary: Silver is pulled into an alternate dimension where an older Miles 'Tails' Prower is a fascistic dictator and former friend of Dr Robotnik who is now in hiding trying everything he can to overthrow his former friend.
1. The Darkest Night

**City of The Lost: Part 1: The Darkest Night**

Silver closed his hands tightly around the Chaos Emerald and his eyes shut to protect them as he concentrated on where he wanted to go. Soon the all-too-familiar blurring of reality and wave of nausea struck him. He really did have to find a way to make this more bearable as it was starting to make him feel really sick. He wasn't sure how beings like his Master and Mephiles managed to move between Timelines all the time without losing their sanity... then again, maybe he didn't have that much sanity to lose. In the blink of an eye he was there now he was here, which raised the question… where, and more importantly, when is here? Silver opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was on a rocky shoreline standing in front of a massive megalopolis stretching for miles in every direction he could see, and he would have taken more of it in… if he didn't immediately bend over and deposit his lunch on the rocks at his feet.

"Ugh… ech… ugh…" He stood back up, cleaned his mouth with the sea water and walked up the shore to a boardwalk, where he was met with even more surprises. He saw humans and mobians having fun, shopping, eating and having a good time which was no surprise but the fact that they were also doing it alongside Eggman robots was downright shocking.

"What the-" He was rendered speechless by the sight, he didn't know if the humans and mobians were under some sort of brainwashing and to start attacking the robots and lead a rebellion or if he should let things be, but one thing was clear. He was not in his home timeline. He walked down the boardwalk doing his best to both not draw attention to himself while also taking notes on what was going on around him, from what he could tell the robots were responsible for doing hard labour while the humans and mobians just enjoyed the pleasures set out before them.

After taking notes on the people he looked for any signs of Robotnik that wasn't his robots, which after looking around for a few minutes he found none of. He took a seat at a bar to assess what he found so far. _"Alright, so, Eggman is seemingly running the show with the amount of Egg-Robos about while the citizens are… just fine with it… but why?"_ The bartender came over to him and snapped him out of his thoughts "Hello Sir, how may I help you? It is happy hour, all drinks are $1 Ring till 5 P.M."

"Uh.. no, I'm fine, just taking a break." The man nodded and turned back to the other patrons before the TV emitted three short buzzes, like an alarm, the sound startled Silver causing him to fall off the barstool. As he got back up the tender changed the channel to a news station, it looked like a press conference was about to start an important one at that given that every TV in the bar and all around the boardwalk was changed to it.

The reporter on screen began to speak after receiving a queue off-screen. "We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for an important announcement from our Leader." She stepped out of the frame and the camera zoomed in on a man walking towards the podium escorted by a pair of robots, when the frame came into focus the person Silver was expecting to see was not there, in fact, it was the most unexpected of people.

Miles 'Tails' Prower

Yet it was not the young child Silver was accustomed to dealing with, he was older, early fifties perhaps, a stern look on his face and eyepatch covering his left eye. Standing at the podium he carried a sense of commanding and ruthlessness about him and the same was reflected in his speech. "Hello citizens of New Mobotropolis, last night the greatest threat to our city was finally apprehended. The streets of our city that once black with your robotic servant's oil will no longer show its ugly head. Metal Sonic has finally been destroyed and there is no sign of 'the good doctor' returning to rebuild him once again."

"What the-" SIlver was dumbfounded, Tails the leader of a city with Egg-Robos serving the people of it? Then 'The Good Doctor' is presumably Dr Eggman and he made Metal Sonic to fight them? Some of the broader details matched up to his home universe's past but the finer ones were where things started to clash. On-screen Tails was about to continue when one of his aids approached and whispered in his ear then retread back against the wall. Silver could've sworn he saw a quick flash of fear and uncertainty across Tails' face before the steeled determination returned. "I've just been informed that a new threat has come to our city, another one of Dr Robotnik's devilish schemes to upset our order and world…" He paused for reporters to blurt out questions.

"What is it?" "Who is it?" "What can we do?" "How do we stop it?" Tails let the questions flow out before holding his hands out in a silent signal to shut up so he can speak.

"Do not fret my people! Our security forces will handle this threat quickly and efficiently if you wish to help look for this man!' Tails motioned to two large screens off to his sides, his government seal was replaced with a large top to bottom image of Silver the Hedgehog. Within moments the bar patrons looked at Silver sitting at the bar then at image on screen then back to him, some began to panic and run while others got up and started to make their way towards him It was then that Silver decided that now would be a good time to run, he threw the bar's collection of alcohol on the floor behind him with his psychokinesis and barrelled down the boardwalk with an angry mob after him growing larger with every citizen that recognized him.

All around him Tails' conference and call to action continued. "If you see this man alert the nearest security bot as to his location and do not engage him. He is capable of moving things with his mind, a telekinetic, he is also ruthless willing to kill someone if it means creating a better, brighter future. Yet how can a killer imagine or create a better, brighter future than the one that I gave you! He is a threat to our lives! A threat to our city! A threat to our society! A threat to your leader! Find him! Stop him! Arrest him! Kill him! Whatever it takes! Do you hear me SIlver! We will find you! They will find you! _-beat-_ I WILL FIND YOU!" Then the conference ended with a polite pre-recorded message "This message from your dear leader has ended, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."

Except they it didn't, as Silver charged down the street away from the boardwalk now using his psychokinesis to fly faster than he could run, a loop of Tails' call to action to find and kill Silver played in their stead, on every screen possible, TVs, Phones, Computers and Electronic Billboards. If it had a screen, it played the message and no matter where Silver ran he couldn't escape him or the angry mobs chasing after him. "Oh, dear sweet Chaos something is definitely not right with this place!" He took every twist and turn he could find but every alleyway he entered lost one mob but lead to another; they eventually herded him into a massive square with electronic billboards showing Tails lining the walls of every shop, top to bottom.

At this point, Silver would've flown away or used something to blockade himself from the swarm of people but he was out of energy from running away and there was nothing around he could use to block them without hurting them. As Silver stood in the centre of the square hearing the people chant over Tails' message he looked up at the night sky and said a silent prayer. As the crowd encroached, screaming louder and angrier, Silver's ears flicked at the sound of something new; an engine roaring loud and approaching the square quickly accompanied by blaster sounds. Silver brought his head down to look at the source of the noise and saw people beginning to fall to the ground and those that didn't were running in panic.

Then a large bike type EX-Gear burst through the crowd and power slid to a stop in front of Silver the rider, clad in a black bodysuit with black gloves and boots; accented with red bands with grey trimming complete with a helmet with red visor, handed a helmet out to him. "Put on and get on kid!" Silver didn't even take a moment to think, he snatched the helmet and got on the bike jamming the helmet on at the same time. The biker didn't even wait for Silver to grab something to hold on to before revving the engine, firing the blasters, and dashing off through the crowd and down the street. "Thanks for the save but who are you!?" he shouted over the roar of the wind rushing by and either the words were lost to the wind or the biker simply ignored them as he swerved through the crowds and streets, knocking down anyone that got in the way with the EX-Gear's blasters. Eventually, they found their way to an electronic rail running the length of the city and out of it, they followed it for almost an hour till they reached the outskirts. A place to which men now rarely ventured or robots even worked. The dark streets flickered under failing street lamps. They were away from the machines and away from the people trying to kill Silver.

Looking around Silver didn't see any screens broadcasting Tails but he could still be seen on a massive telescreen mounted to the top of a giant skyscraper, he could see his mouth moving but could hear no words. The biker coasted the EX-Gear to a stop in an alleyway, silenced the engine and lowered the kickstand, as the duo disembarked Silver heard footsteps, slow and deliberate, echoing from the darkness of the alleyway. Silver, despite being low on energy, braced for some sort of fight; the biker held out a hand to signal Silver to calm down as the footsteps emerged from the darkness of the alley and into the uneven glow of the flickering street lights.

It was a grey-haired man, mid to late sixties, balding, long messy beard eyes covered with thick blue glasses, dressed in a thick brown trench coat that concealed the rest of him. He carried the air of an intelligent but broken man full of regrets and looking for a way to atone for them, he scanned Silver with his analytical eyes before turning away back into the alley calling behind him. "Bring him in Knuckles, he's the one." The biker removed his helmet confirming what the grey man said, it was Knuckles who saved him yet, like Tails, he was much older than the Knuckles he knew. "Come on, the Doc probably has a lot to explain, as do you."

Knuckles led Silver into the shadows their boots splashing in puddles of water and crunching over gravel and other debris; he was led down a small flight of steps to a metal door locked with a keypad, thumbprint and eye scanner and voice recognition. There was even a camera watching them from the top of the door frame, 'the doc' and Knuckles weren't skimping out on the security which with the world the way it is can you really blame them? Knuckles unlocked the door and held it open for Silver who cautiously walked into the building and it was as if he had stepped into a home-brewed garage robot factory. Frames lined the walls, spare and broken parts littered the floor, schematics lay on the tables covered with half-built, or half broken robots, oil cans, and lubricant bottles were stacked in various places some of which were toppled over and their contents spilled on the cement floor.

"Sorry for the mess, I don't get a lot of company these days…" The old man said not looking up from a set of blueprints he was working on. Silver jumped as Knuckles tossed the pair of helmets on a table causing even more parts to fall on the floor.

"Careful knucklehead, I may need those…" Knuckles rolled his eyes and crossed to a beaten, broken, ripped and stuffing coming out couch. "Sure." Silver was about to speak but, and again without looking up, the old man interrupted.

"I'm sure you have a million questions running through your head right now, who are you? Where am I? What's going on? Why am I here? So on and so forth, am I correct?" Silver nodded "Yes, but I think I have some inkling of an idea."

"Oh really? Then please tell us." Silver cleared his throat and wrung his hands. "Well going off the past hour twenty minutes or so, uh, it seems that Tails is a tyrannical dictator posing as a benevolent technological messiah and you are Doctor Robotnik." At the mention of his name, the man looked up at Silver over the rims of his glasses.

"Robotnik? Heh heh heh oh I haven't gone by that name in over 30 years, same with Tails he hasn't gone by that for about the same time… you seem nervous, what's the matter, boy?"

"Oh, sorry, where I come from you're not exactly… a, uh, a nice guy." Robotnik harrumphed and returned to his drawings "Probably, there is an infinite number of universes out there and in one or more of which there exists a version of me that isn't 'a nice guy'."

Knuckles broke in to back him up "I can vouch for the Doc, he's a smart and kind-hearted man." Robotnik looked over at him over the rims of his glasses. "He's just got one of those hard candy coatings over it." Knuckles finished.

Robotnik rolled his eyes, placed his pencil down on the blueprints, laced his fingers and looked at Silver. "The Guardian speaks some truth, for if I weren't you would be strung up on a light post by now."

Silver nodded "Yeah, the citizens of the city didn't seem too… happy after Tails started speaking."

Robotnik nodded "Yeah he probably picked up your Chaos signature like I did then, well, you experienced what he did after. So care to tell me why you're here?"

Silver's shoulders shrugged as his mouth struggled to form words eventually he spoke "I don't know, to be honest. I've been trying to get back home, my Prime Timeline, for a long while now but I keep winding up in these alternate universes and timelines."

Robotnik's eyes had closed, head nodding, processing this information "What happens when you arrive in these alternate dimensions?"

"Uh, well I end up being pulled into some sort of world-saving adventure, which seems to be becoming a pattern." After a moment Robotnik spoke, "Well then, seems it was fate that brought you here to help; or at the very least, let me ask you for it." Silver nodded slowly for a moment, eyes looking down to the side "Yeah, I'll help but I want to hear the full story, how this happened, why it happened, who's on your side, who's against you, everything."

Robotnik nodded and invited Silver to take a seat across from him at the table "Then know everything you shall. It was just over 30 years ago when this whole mess started to form. Tails and I were brilliant robotic engineers and scientists, we were driven by a promise we made to the city; to create something that could withstand all the hell that man goes through. Something that would lessen the chances of men dying while on the job… something that would make it so that no son would ever have to say 'My father worked himself to death.'"

"I assume you achieved that goal." Robotnik nodded in response "Yes, yes we did… but I could never have imagined what cost it came at…"

"Cost? What cost?"

"Dread was heavy in my heart the night we flipped the switch on the first set of robots… I knew that something was wrong… ever since Tails started demanding to see and alter the plans, designs, all of it… I couldn't say no…"

Robotnik continued " I couldn't pull the plug on the project as it would be admitting failure, failure to the people of the city… If I knew then what I know now, I never would've flipped that switch. Yet I flipped it and that was that and you see what it led to…" Robotnik was now crying slightly, his head hung low, forehead supported in the palm of his hand. Silver had heard all he needed to now and his decision was made; heck it was made back when Knuckles rescued him. "I'll help, what do I need to do?" Robotnik looked up at him in surprise "Really, you'll help?" Silver nodded.

"Well then, we first need to get you armored and covered up." Robotnik stated standing up and wiping tears from his face. "Co-covered up? What do you mean? I understand armoring but-" Robotnik started searching in a back closet for something as he answered "Remember when I said 'He's the one'? Well, these glasses I'm wearing aren't your average correctional spectacles, I made them so that they could pick up on trace amounts of Chaos energy. Not unlike the thermal vision I made for The Hounds."

"Alright, I'm guessing I'm letting of Chaos energy?"

Robotnik returned to the main room with a black bodysuit, black gloves and boots accented with cyan bands with gray trimming. "OH yes, like a wildfire. Put these on, I designed them to reduce Knuckles' energy for when he ventures into the city. He wasn't a fan of the colour so I made new ones, I hope they fit." As Silver started putting it on Knuckles removed a cushion on the couch revealing a weapons crate, Robotnik meanwhile folded back a robot plan on a table hiding a computer and radar. "What's that for?"

Robotnik started flipping switches and turning dials "This allows me to track Knuckles and Metal Sonic through the city." Silver flashed back to the start of Tails' press conference.

"Uh yeah, abo-"

"Metal Sonic is dead, I'm aware. Knuckles was there trying to help get him out of there." Knuckles recounted the event as he pulled out a few guns and checked them. "We were sent out to get in touch with an inside man who contacted us about forming a resistance, Metal went ahead to clear a path but the Hounds and their Master got to him first. I heard the clashing of steel from a distance and tried to get there but by the time I arrived, Metal was nothing more than a few scraps of steel. Then the Doc called up and informed me of a massive Chaos Energy displacement and to check it out, soon after Miles' announcement aired and I followed the crowds."

Silver replaced his boots and gloves with the ones Robotnik gave him. "What's the plan." Robotnik looked over his shoulder at him. "The same one, both of you sneak into the city and find this contact and do it discreetly, which means no firing 'less fired upon and no psychic showing off." Silver nodded and Knuckles holstered a pair of pistols "Got it."

"Now go! Quickly!" Robotnik shooed them out the door and locked it tightly behind them, the pair climbs the steps to the EX-Gear. "Alright Silver, once we put these helmets on we DO NOT take them off till we get back here. Understand?" Silver nodded and they climbed on, Knuckles raised the kickstand and fired up the engine; when Silver was in place they tore off back to the city the way they came. Cracked pavement and overgrown plants slowly put themselves back together and cut themselves down as they entered the embrace of the metallic robotic arms that held the city firmly in its grasp. Surprisingly in the short 2 hours since Silver left the city the citizens had apparently forgotten all about him and 'the threat' he posed to them, returning to their normal lives. Knuckles sensed Silver's thoughts and answered the question not asked. "Don't be fooled, they haven't forgotten about you their attention has just been diverted to other things to distract them."

"But why?"

"Why not? Life is short and everyone has the ability to do whatever they please, also distracts them from the oppression they live under." Oppression, a word Silver knew fairly well as his home was always under some form of it whether it came from a massive immortal fire golem god-thing or an oppressive council whose motto might as well be 'Our Way or The Prison'.

"Oppression is a funny thing, it could take the form of an overt military state or in this case, robots do all the hard labour, ya know jobs where men stand a reasonably high chance of dying on the clock. As a result, there are not enough jobs to employ people so they rely on Miles' Government to take care of themselves."

"Yet it doesn't seem to be enough if there are people willing to fight against it."

Knuckles nodded "Yeah but they can't voice it if they are… then they simply disappear, never to be seen again. He's taken control of the city by exploiting our will to survive, no one speaks out and he crushes the will of the people. They have to support Miles to live, but in supporting Miles they only ensure they have no chance to be free." Silver looked around under his helmet and began to see the cracks in the society Miles built, security bots patrolling the streets with one on every corner and cameras everywhere. Screens with Miles face and government seal hung on every wall and the people walking with their shoulders slumped and head down. Even the people who were enjoying themselves seemed restrained as if they could be hauled off for being too rowdy. They came to a red light and his point was proven as he saw a police bot pull a drunken woman out of a bar and begin beating her.

"Why don't they fight?"

"How can they? Why would they? All their needs are taken care of by the state supposedly, those who think otherwise are gone by the next morning. And all the security forces are made of steel that no normal person even has a chance of putting a dent in. If one is taken out, two more will take its place." Knuckles replied, his voice laced with disappointment. "The last person who did stand and fight was turned into an example."

They pulled up to a high rise apartment building and got off the bike, they climbed the steps to the front door and entered. "Who was it, Sonic?" Knuckles stopped in his tracks and looked back at Silver, confused and instantly suspicious.

"How do you know Sonic?" Silver's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before remembering this was not _his_ Knuckles but a different Knuckles. "Oh, well in my dimension Sonic was a great hero who fought against the 'not exactly a nice guy' Dr Robotnik and stops him from, well, doing what Tails did here." Knuckles nodded and smiled "Seems our worlds have something in common. Come on our guy lives all the way at the top so start climbing."

And so they did, up and up they went passing closed and locked doors, passing cameras, and screens, not even in the halls of an apartment could one escape the watchful eye of the Prower Administration. When they reached the 32nd floor Silver was out of breath, he wasn't used to climbing this many flights of stairs at once, he usually flew up them. He thanked the gods that this was the final flight as when they came to Apt 4 the door swung open to reveal someone Silver was well acquainted with but unlike the other familiar faces, he looked no older than the one Silver knew; it was Shadow the Hedgehog.

"You're late." He grunted, opening the door and leading them in with Silver closed the door behind him. Knuckles apologized and removed his helmet "Yeah, sorry we got held up." Shadow took a seat and lit a cigar. "Yeah, your new friend there caused quite the commotion earlier. But that's done and gone, let's get to business."

"Right, you said you know some people who are willing to form some sort of resistance force?" Shadow nodded and puffed on the cigar. "Got that right, I've got a turncoat M-100 series robot with the lust to destroy everything Miles has made. A ninja chameleon, he may be a bit on the older side but he still kicks ass. A veritable army of mercs, made of Ex-Military and Special Forces, whose business in the city has taken a massive hit since Miles took over and in general want their jobs and city back, same goes for a team of thieves and a few more individuals. All of them ready to go once I give the signal."

Knuckles thought it over for a moment "What do you want in return?" Shadow shook his head. "Nothing except freedom for the people and their hope to be restored." He held out his hand. "Deal?" Knuckles took it "Deal." They shook "Where should we meet to discuss plans?" Knuckles lead him over to the window and point out to the horizon. "See the Elec-rail, wait 4 hours after we leave the building before you do, when you do, follow it south for an hour or so till you arrive at a run downtown. When you reach the intersection with a liquor store on one side and hardware store across from it, hit one of the crosswalk buttons and wait. Someone will come get you, relay these instructions to your men. Everyone that intends to fight must be there by noon tomorrow."

Shadow's brow furrowed "Noon tomorrow? That's 13 hours from now, 9 after the four hours of waiting."

"Better work quickly then." Knuckles smiled as he put his helmet back on.

Then everything went boom.

Owl shaped robots clad in silver armor smashed through the windows sending glass flying everywhere and the trio flying back, letting the howling wind flying in, a helicopter lowered into view and hovered there letting wolf-shaped robots leap into the apartment. Knuckles un-holstered his guns and began firing at them, Shadow started blasting them with Chaos and shouted over the roar of the chopper blades. "GO! i'LL HOLD 'EM OFF! GET OUTTA HERE!" Silver didn't need to be told twice he scrambled to his feet ripping the front door off its hinges with his powers and slamming it into a robot behind him. Knuckles followed close behind him blasting the pursuing robots, with their cover blown Silver didn't mind taking the stairs any longer; mostly because he didn't plan on taking them at all. "Knuckles! Do you trust me!" Knuckles looked at him "Yeah, sure why!?"

Silver grabbed him and a robot with psychokinesis, threw the robot through the window, breaking it, and leaping out with Knuckles behind him. They landed on the sidewalk and dashed for the bike not even bothering to put the helmets on, as soon as Knuckles got his feet on the handles he slammed it into first gear then second then third as they raced down the street pursued by the robot forces. Knuckles handed a blaster back to Silver "Use this to take 'em off our tail! Aim for the underside of the neck, the jugular!" Silver nodded and took the gun, he opened fire and found he shot as well as Sonic stayed in one place.

Instead of the gun, he started grabbing anything he could to throw at and halt the wolves advancement, it worked but not fast enough according to Knuckles. "We've got to get rid of them before we leave the city or they'll follow us straight home, use that psychic power of yours and take down that chopper! It's the one sending the command signal to the Hounds!" Silver nodded again and turned his focus to it, the chopper was following them, the spotlight focused on them. Unfortunately, it was too far away to grab hold of directly so he had to get creative if they could just get a little higher. Silver looked around for some sort of ramp and saw a building under construction further down the street. "Head up that construction! If I get higher up I can grab the chopper and bring it down!" Knuckles nodded and charged towards it.

The bike ripped through the plastic orange fencing while Silver threw robots and large machinery out its way, they dashed up the ramps the workbots used to navigate up to higher floors till the reached the roof level where they slid to a stop. Knuckles shot out the supports, collapsing the walkway up cutting off the Hounds "Alright kid, whatever you plan on doing do it quick. It won't be long before they smash this building down to get to us."

"Don't worry, the Hounds won't have a chance. How high can you make this Gear jump?"

Knuckles detached a shotgun from the side of the bike and started pumping the dogs with charges. "Doc engineered it so that if I get it going fast enough I can drive up the sides of buildings, theoretically."

"Alright, be ready to do that when I say so." Knuckles nodded and returned to firing at the Hounds. Silver turned his attention to the helicopter, it was in range but just barely and the constant barking, howling and gun and blaster fire didn't help calm his nerves. So he closed his eyes and concentrated… he pushed out the barking and howling hounds… silenced the gun and blaster fire… quieted the sound of metal clashing against metal… ignored the swaying of the construction as the Hounds slammed against it in attempts to bring it down… pushed all of it out so all that was left was him and the helicopter in a white space.

In the helicopter the pilot started to smile, these idiots he was chasing are just standing there waiting to be destroyed. And the grey one wasn't even trying to fight off the hounds like his comrade. He was just standing there staring at the chopper with his eyes closed and hands outstretched as if he could grab his bird. The pilot flipped the cover on the missile launch button and primed them for launch, all he needed to do was position his bird out of the range of any debris. He pulled up on the stick… but the chopper stayed in place, he pulled again but the bird did not move; then he heard a terrible metal screeching from above. He looked up through the windshield and saw the blades had stopped dead and were going a cyan blue. "What the?" Then the ground rose to meet him.

Back on the roof Silver's eyes flashed open his fur glowing cyan, he had full control of the helicopter; his voice sounded like multiple as he shouted over to Knuckles. "Get that Gear ready! Now!" Knuckles didn't even bother to respond, he leapt onto the bike, held the brake and slammed on the gas; a meter next to the speedometer started filling up. Silver leapt up, hands laced together, and slammed them down on the roof floor then dashed over and leapt on the back of the bike. "GO!" Knuckles let go of the brake and the bike shot off the roof with a little help from Silver bending a section of the roof to form a makeshift ramp. As they slammed through the windows of an office building then out the other side, the helicopter crashed down into the construction site. Igniting the construction materials and sending a fireball high into the air, the Hounds were either blown up in the explosion or deactivated and melted in the fire and flame.

Knuckles looked behind him as they made their retreat "Wow… That was something… think you could do that again?" Silver's fur stopped to glow and he sluggishly nodded and responded: "Y-y-yeah, sure…" Then slumped unconscious on Knuckles' back. "Not for awhile kid, not for a while."


	2. Due Vendetta

14

City of The Lost: Part 2: Due Vendetta

Much later Silver woke with a start, he was held down by Robotnik "Whoa, whoa, whoa there kid. Calm down, calm down, you're safe. You've been out for nearly 8 hours." Silver looked around and saw he was back in the workshop, yet it was more crowded than when he and Knuckles left. Gathered by the table was Shadow, Espio, Knuckles and a few others that looked familiar but he couldn't put a name to their faces. Robotnik helped him to his feet and over to the table where they had a map of the city laid out before the group. It was marked all over with various colors of ink denoting locations of cameras, security bot hives, possible blind spots, and in the center of the map, Miles' tower.

"Alright Silver here's the plan…" Robotnik, Shadow, and Knuckles began explaining the plan and revising it when someone pointed out a potential failure. They made their plans carefully. Spending hours on the details. Shadow, despite having ties to Robotnik from before Miles' takeover, was one of his top security officers and the one who helped develop the telescreens and transmitters he used to control the city. Thinking that this situation may come to pass, he inserted a kill switch for the entire system that only he could flip or remove.

If he could reach the main telescreen on top of Miles' tower they could take out the central transmitter. They could stop the broadcasts going out to the satellite screens. They could stop the broadcasts going out to the machines. He could take out Miles' eyes. If they did that then Robotnik could get into the city undetected and finally get revenge on Miles and end this madness.

"This WILL be our only chance at stopping my son, to light this eternal night of oppression up with the fires of hope and freedom. If we fail now all of us will be killed. We'll need all of you in this room to pull this plan off but if you wish to step out now, then do so…" He waited a moment for anyone to leave, no one even glanced at the door. "Alright then, everyone armor and gear up. We leave as soon as sunset falls." The group cheered and started to do as such while Robotnik retreated to his room where Silver followed with a few questions, especially about that 'my son' bit. He sat at a desk in front of a mirror looking down at a group of pictures, Silver looked over his shoulder at them and what he saw caused him to actually feel sympathy for the man he knew in his homeworld to be a monster.

The first photo was of him standing alongside his grandfather Prof. Gerald Robotnik, his cousin Maria, Shadow, and what he presumed to be his and her parents. It was a celebration party for the Professor as held a framed plaque with a headshot and caption "Professor Gerald Robotnik, The Man who cured N.I.D.S.". The next was a series of wedding photos of Robotnik and his wife, caption "Ivo and Isabella Robotnik, Oct. 18th, 3229. Next another family photo but one of a birthday party, who it was for though surprised Silver, sitting at a table with a cake lit up with 14 candles was Tails smiling broadly, Robotnik and a woman kneeling beside him smiling fondly at the boy. Next was a graduation photo, Robotnik and the woman from the birthday picture standing next to Tails holding a diploma and dressed in graduation gown and cap, the diploma read "Miles 'Tails' Prower-Robotnik, Class of 3238 Summa Cum Laude.

By now Robotnik had taken notice of his silent observer and spoke "I found him wandering the streets at the age of 8, I was 21 and just proposed to the love of my life. When I brought him home Bella at first wanted to take him to an orphanage but then she looked in his eyes. Saw the innocence, the heart, the hope in his eyes and a year before we even got married we had our first child."

"What happened… to them, your family…"

Robotnik removed his glasses for he knew the tears were coming. "Well, my Grandfather died of old age long before Tails became… what he is now. I convinced my parents to skip town the night Tails became Miles and took over, Maria refused to leave and insisted on staying behind to try and talk sense into my son… I never saw her again after that night… Then my Bella, my precious Bella… she saw what I what I refused to see and that night when we first turned on the robots she confronted him. And so he killed her and framed me for the murder to cover up and hide his evil intentions."

Silver knew he should say something but could find no words.

"I waited over thirty years for a chance like this to come around… Miles took my life… my work… my family… my wife, my love… and my son… It is time for his rule to come to an end." Robotnik rose from the desk, tears wiped away and his face hardened with determination. He looked out the window then returned to the main room where the resistance was waiting and prepared to go. "Let's light up the night." The resistance cheered and roared as they exited the building, psyching themselves up for the assault and battle ahead. As a unit they rode towards the city, the group known as the Hooligans, which were almost an entire army in and of themselves rather than just Nack, Bean and Bark, lead the charge, their duty was to draw the attention of the police bots making an opening for the group known as the Babylon Rogues to start rallying as many people as they could and lead them to fight against Miles' forces.

With Miles' forces spread thin and chasing The Hooligans through town it made the perfect opening for Espio, Shadow and Silver to charge the Tower and disable the telescreens and transmitters and capture Miles, leaving Knuckles able to Chaos Control himself and Robotnik to the tower where he would end this madness once and for all.

As soon as they saw the first set of helicopters take to the skies and Hounds howl, they saw the telescreens switch to a message from Miles stating that a group of insurgents was assaulting the city but not worry and stay inside, that the State would take of it quickly and efficiently. The Resistance waited just outside the city limits watching the flag poles at each of the military bases, whenever the Hooligans had taken one down the flag would be lowered. There were 6 to be taken out and replaced with a Flag of Resistance, something the Babylon Rogue, Wave had been working on for awhile in secret.

10 minutes and the first flag fell.

Another 10 and the second fell.

The third fell in another 10.

"Say what you will about their methods, The Hooligans get shit done quickly and done right," Shadow commented. Silver nodded, only Sonic could do this that quickly; then again an army of 120 well-trained Ex-Military and Special Forces fighting to take back their city could match anyone with speed and ferocity. Within the hour all 6 bases had fallen "Mission accomplished Commander Shadow, we'll take care of these Hounds and Hawks and keep 'em off the backs of the Rogues."

"Excellent work Nack, the Rogues on their way." Jet, Wave, and Storm didn't even hear anything past "Mission Accomplished" they had already shot into the city and began to rally the men for battle after a few short moments they heard the telescreens switch to a picture of a very disapproving Miles chanting words to quell the uprising, inspire fear back into his citizens, take away the freedom just within grasp of his subordinates. Yet slowly but surely his chanting was deafened b the roar of the people and their battle cry, their cry for freedom!

"That's our signal, let's go!" the M-100 unit known as Unit-123 Omega lead the charge in full assault mode, his hand were Gatling guns, shoulders had missile pods sticking out of them, and his chest was retracted to reveal even more guns. Shadow ignited the rockets in his skates and blasted off after him with his Inhibitor Rings removed so his fur was lit up with bright red chaotic energy. Silver took note of the fact that this Shadow was much more skilled in manipulating the Chaos than his Shadow as he formed battle armor with it. Silver didn't know if it was for show or if it actually had a purpose but Silver would wait till an enemy hit Shadow to find out.

Espio and Silver on their own EX-Gear followed after them into the city, Silver looked behind him at Knuckles and the Doctor; They raised their hands in salute as they watched them fly away. They entered the city and before Silver's eyes was a war zone, within an hour and thirty minutes this small resistance group had turned Miles' sparkling silver metallic false utopia into the battlegrounds of a revolution. Robot parts, weapons, shattered telescreens, and debris littered the streets; as the buildings flew past them as they rushed towards the center of the city, towards where the fate of the city would be decided, Silver saw what was once scared citizens of the city had turned into ferocious soldiers of a fight for freedom.

Using whatever they could get a hold of as weapons against Miles' machines, the robots were built for combat yet even steel has a breaking point and everything has a weak point. Once people started finding the weak points and what could take them out, The Hounds, The Hawks, The Riot-bots, all of them started to fall. When you show men freedom, the way to achieve it, and the tools to do so, nothing can stop them.

The group of four blasted, slashed, smashed and crashed their way down Main Street towards Miles' Tower; when they reached the courtyard outside the entrance to the tower and found that Miles had a squad of large humanoid robotic bears, built like tanks standing at 12' tall; Some were transformed into bear form yet they still were massive standing at 6'. They had no weapons other than their large, long sharp claws and missile pods on their shoulders. Shadow smirked, his fangs bared, "Wonderful they brought out the Bears. I was looking for a challenge."

Above the crowd of Bears, Miles stood in a telescreen glaring down at them daring them to make a move. "YOU WILL STOP RIGHT NOW! THIS IS _MY_ CITY! I BUILT THIS CITY! I SAVED HUMANITIES LIVES WITH MY CREATIONS! ATTACK THEM!"

Shadow blasted two of the Bears back with a Chaos Blast, Espio turned invisible and two more fell with kunai sticking out of their necks and heads. Silver grabbed one and threw it against another before slamming it into an archway bringing tons of stone and steel down on a group of three. Shadow faced the telescreen again and issued his own challenge "AND HOW MANY DIED IN THE PROCESS?" The trio continued to attack as more of the Bears attempted to cut them down, a shouting match broke out between Shadow and Miles.

"HOW MANY HAVE YOU SILENCED!"

"I SAVED THIS CITY!"

"HOW MANY YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN WERE CUT DOWN IN THEIR PRIME!?"

"I WILL SAVE THIS WORLD!'

"HOW MANY FATHERS, MOTHERS, BROTHERS, SISTERS, SONS, AND DAUGHTERS WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR FAMILIES BECAUSE THEY VOICED AN OPINION!"

"HUMANITY DOES NOT KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR THEM!"

Shadow finally had enough and unleashed a massive Chaos Blast sending them and the Bears flying and blasting apart the courtyard. Then everything went silent for a moment… then the angry mob of people arrived at the courtyard chanting loud so that even over 2,700 feet in the air Miles could hear them loud and clear in his control room.

Shadow, breathless and tired issued one last question "Like you do?"

"Yes… I do. Now all of you stand down!"

"Look around you, Miles! You've lost! The people have opened their eyes to your tyranny! You may have given them all the time they want to indulge in the pleasures of life, but you took away their Hope, Hope for life, Hope for love, Hope for being whatever they want to be, Hope for a better future."

The Crowd continued chanting "GIVE US FREEDOM! GIVE US OUR CITY! GIVE US FREEDOM! GIVE US HOPE! GIVE US FREEDOM! OR GIVE US DEATH" and they continued to chant.

"FINE! You want death, then you can have it!" Ordered Miles then his screen went black. The crowd kept chanting and advancing towards the tower. "It is over?" Silver asked Shadow shook his head "No we still have to take out the transmitter and Tails." They started marching towards the entrance when something slammed into them, fast and hard, sending the three back into the crowd of people. When Silver recovered he was shocked at who he saw, it was not the face of evil. It was the face of a hero.

Sonic the Hedgehog

His face lacked the youth and vitality of Silver's Sonic, replaced with age and apathy; gone was the optimism and faith in his eyes replaced with cynicism and doubt. He also lacked a lot of other things like his left arm, his legs and more of his body; they were replaced with cybernetics. His left arm, now a canon, his legs and most of his torso were mechanical, one eye was a stoic malicious red cybernetic. Sonic, who fought so hard to keep and protect the world from being ruled by robots and the people becoming them, was now one of them

The crowd's cries suddenly died out and they froze in fear and looked to Silver after a few tense moments of silence Sonic spoke. "So they look to you now… they look to you to save them… they once looked to me like that."

"What are you doing Sonic!?"

"I'm saving mankind from themselves."

"All they want is freedom! The freedom that you stand and fight for!"

"USED to stand for. No longer. These people do not want freedom, no matter how loud they chant, no matter how much they fight, and call for a hero… they do not want one…"

"These people just fought through hordes of Miles' robots to get here to take back their freedom and city! If that's not a fight for freedom than what is?!"

"Yet _they_ stand here now, frozen in fear watching _you_ , waiting for _you_ to solve _their_ problems and save the day. There are no heroes left in man." To prove his point he focused on the crowd. "Is there anyone here that has the courage to even step forward and fight? Anyone who values fighting and dying for freedom over living a life of forced complacency!"

No one stepped forward.

Sonic gestured to the crowd as he turned his attention back to Silver. "Do you see now, Do you understand? If you want them to have their freedom, then you must stand against me and you will stand alone!" Silver walked closer to Sonic who just stood there eyeing the crowd and daring, almost begging, them to prove him wrong. "I will not fight you but ask you to stand _with_ me. You were a hero once! You can be one again!"

"If I can be a hero to them, then they are fools!"

"They need a hero Sonic! You can be it!"

"If they want a fight for freedom, then let _them_ fight for it! They need to fight for themselves!"

Shadow had finally stood back up and as he limped over to where Sonic and SIlver stood he protested his words "They don't know how! They know no better… they have no hope…"

"Well then, you finally understand. There are no heroes left in man." Sonic raised his arm cannon and charged it, ready to finish the fight when a can hit him in the head… followed by a rock… and a shoe… and robot parts spent bullet casings and anything people could lift and throw. They began to chant once again and march to the tower and attack Sonic "You want us to fight! We'll give you a fight!" Silver and Shadow turned to face the crowd and attempt to stop them but they overpowered them and dogpiled Sonic. The sound of metal crunching and wires ripping and Sonic's cries of pain echoed through the courtyard. When the people cleared and turned their attention to invading the tower, they left Sonic laying on the ground.

The two hedgehogs approached and kneeled next to him and found him to be smiling faintly and a tear falling from his eye, he looked at them as they got down. "Why didn't you fight back? You knew you could overpower them." Shadow asked.

"Heh heh… the caught me by surprise… They actually fought…" Sonic coughed then recoiled as something in his body started to buzz. "What's going on, what's happening?" Silver asked concerned.

"Don't worry kid, that's just my auto-repair going to-ACK! Work HURNG! I'll be operational in-RRRGGG- a few moments." Sonic looked towards the sky with a thousand yard stare. "I waited so long to be proven wrong…"

"Well, you were wrong Sonic, there are heroes." Sonic laughed and smiled. "Yes… yes, there are." He looked at Shadow and Silver, his faith in mankind restored. There was loud ca-chunk and pissh as Sonic let out a guttural roar of pain and his back arched sharply sending his chest skyward. Then he started to stand as Shadow and Silver helped he asked "So what's the plan boys? All that's left for me to do is to atone for what I've done."

"I need to get to the transmitter at the top, I can shut it down and stop this nightmare." Sonic nodded. "Alright follow me and try to keep up!" Sonic dashed into the tower with Shadow and Silver after him, they began making their way up the tower. Smashing their way through every robot that got in the way till they reached the location of the transmitter, Miles' Control Room. Silver ripped the door off its hinges and sent it flying into the room where Miles waited at his desk, he was sitting there leaning on it with his elbows, his fingertips touching. He glared at the hedgehogs as they entered the room and approached the desk, the air was cold and thick with tension as both sides wanted the other dead but were unsure if they could make it so.

"Are you happy now… My city is in ruins, my robots are broken parts, everything I worked for my entire life has been destroyed in only a few short hours." Sonic and Shadow stalked towards the desk with their firearms aimed straight at Miles. "Now that you ask it, no, no we're not. Once that transmitter is blown to pieces, you're locked behind bars and the control of the city has been restored to the people then I might be happy." Shadow spat and cocked the pistol. Sonic began charging his arm cannon. "Hands on the desk, palms up, now."

Miles smiled at Sonic "Oh, you're the one giving orders to me?" he asked each word dripping with sarcasm. "Yeah, I am you smarmy little fox now do it!" Miles laughed as he compiled "I think you forget who the master is in this relationship Sonic." As Shadow took out a couple of zip ties to cuff him he slammed the bottom of the desk with a knee; something went beep then Sonic screamed clutching his head. Shadow caught off guard dropped the zip ties and gun then Sonic swung around and locked him in a neck-hold. "HA HA! You idiots! You really think I didn't plan for this? That I wouldn't have a contingency plan for if Sonic or the people rebelled. Sonic blast Shadow's head off will you?"

"Yes, Master." His arm cannon whined as he charged it, Miles turned his attention to Silver. "Well then Mr. Psychokinesis looks like you have a choice you can save Shadow and kill Sonic or you ca-" He didn't even finish his sentence as Silver grabbed him and lifted him in the air. "Oh shut up, I've had enough of you villains grandstanding and delivering evil monologues about how you'll be the winner of it all in the end." Silver tore Sonic from Shadow and held him against the wall giving him a chance to get to the transmitter control panel. "If you spent more time actually doing stuff instead of grandstand then maybe you would win." Miles growled and Silver noticed his fur begin to darken.

"You're right Silver… monologuing is the reason why you three defeated me in the first place." Blas smoke and tar started to drip from his body as his eyes turned green, Shadow flipped the control switch on the transmitter and one by one the telescreens went dark and the robots shut down. He turned around to face Silver and Miles with a walkie-talkie in hand to inform Knuckles and Robotnik of the victory "It is over. No more- what the fu-" Then everything went boom.

Silver was getting very tired of things going boom around him.

Silver's hold on Miles and Sonic was broken and they fell to the floor, the blast shattered the windows and the telescreen hanging just outside them. Shadow was blown out the window and began falling 275 stories to the ground below, Sonic was slammed through the floor to another story, somehow Silver managed to stay roughly in the same place. As he picked himself off the floor he found the ground was covered in a thick black tar-like substance and every shadow in the room seemed to watch him. Miles was lying deathly still on his desk like he had been sacrificed to some god. Then the shadows started to talk.

"You fool… you fell right into my trap…" Silver looked around him for the owner of the voice but could see no one. "What are you talking about?!"

"Heh heh heh heh… this whole world, the robots, the city, Miles' betrayal and Robotnik's downfall… all of it was by design, all for you…"

"I'm touched, why not come out here so I can thank you personally."

"If I must…" All the shadows in the room started to converge at one point, the tar formed tendrils that rose to meet them slowly it started to form into a being. At first, it looked like Shadow then the tar began to harden and crystalize into a deep almost black purple slowly fading into stark white tips, the sclera turned a blood red and eyes a brilliant emerald green. As the rest of the creature's body began to form the room grew colder and Silver's unease grew; something in his mind was telling him knew this creature but at the same time he did not. It was also telling him to run like hell as far as he can as fast as he can… he ignored it.

The being finally formed and floated down to the floor, and he stalked over to Silver "What? Nothing? Did you forget me?" Silver's eyes widened. "If I saw you before I would certainly have remembered you! I've never seen anything like you before in my life!" Silver felt the tar lash out and wrap itself around his wrists and legs forcing him to kneel.

"I'm sure you've seen me before, in fact, we were once great… friends…" He raised a glowing fingertip to Silver's forehead and taped it slightly, Silver cried in pain at the contact and as old memories locked away deep in his subconscious came to the forefront of his mind. Memories of an altered timeline where he lived in a lost future locked in eternal conflict with a god known as Iblis and the journey back in time to stop him before he could take the world before failing and culminating in the fight with the God of Spacetime and Fire, Solaris. Then the fight with Mephiles as spacetime collapsed around them before trying to reset everything and Mephiles' meddling causing everything to be reset and reborn anew.

As Silver looked up at Mephiles he could sense his smugness "Well now, do you remember me?"

"How?"

"How what? How did I survive the reset? Please… you can't erase a god from existence, we ARE existence! Bah, what I'm doing monologuing, I should take your advice and just execute my plan."

"Plan? What would that be?" Mephiles bent down and held Silver's chin in his crystalline hands, the sharp fingertips opening cuts in his muzzle, his reptilian eyes gazed into Silver's. "You really think I'm going to tell you that?"

Silver couldn't help but notice the humor in the question. "Yeah." Mephiles rolled his eyes and dropped Silver's head. "Pathetic. Yet I'll humor you, you can't do anything about it anyway. I'm going to kill you, each and every one of you."

"But there's only one of me." Mephiles looked at him like a dog looking at a new dish. "Please, you've met alternate reality versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Shadow and more, you really think there isn't one of you in this reality?"

"Oh…"

"Oh is right, and I plan to do the same with Sonic, Shadow and all the others but first I'll have a little fun and run their world into the ground, crush their souls before I crush their existence in every reality."

The gravity of his plan hit Silver like a ton of bricks, if it came to fruition then there would be no one who could face or defeat Mephiles.

"If you want to destroy us then why not give us a chance to fight for our right to exist?"

Mephiles rolled his eyes "Now why would I do that, let me share a little nugget of wisdom. No matter how much power one has at hand, even the smallest bit of luck given to your opponent can swing the battle in their favor. So I'm taking away the chance for you to get lucky in battle and defeat me."

"If you're an all-powerful god of spacetime that cannot be erased, then why not chance it? You can always start fresh with a new set of Silvers, Sonics, and Shadows." Mephiles stopped, he hadn't thought of that.

"You raise an excellent point hedgehog." The tendrils that held Silver down released him and as he stood up, Mephiles challenged him. "Bring it on mortal, show me what you've got."

"You've got it!" Silver's fur glowed brightly as he charged towards Mephiles, throwing everything he could pick up at him but Mephiles batted them back towards him. Silver reached out the window with his powers and yanked a support beam from the telescreen from its moorings, Mephiles heard the crash and turned to see a 144 Lb section of steel flying towards him. The beam impaled Mephiles and sent him flying him through the front wall into the elevator shaft where it stuck him on the wall, Silver leaped onto the beam and taunted Mephiles. "Call mercy yet?"

Mephiles grabbed both sides of the beam and crushed it before Silver could react he twisted and the beam snapped sending both of them into a free fall. At first, Silver screamed in surprise and fear before catching himself and turning to face the falling Mephiles who tore the remains of the support out of his chest and hurled it at him. Not wanting to be impaled like Mephiles was Silver dashed out of the way latching onto one of the elevator cables he swung around and as Mephiles passed by him Silver slammed into him feet first. Mephiles crashed through the elevator shaft door and skid across the floor leaving a skid-mark of tar where a metal boot stopped him.

Mephiles looked up and found himself staring down the barrel of Sonic's Arm Cannon. "Eat plasma bitch!" The beam sent both himself and Mephiles flying, the floor below shattered under Mephiles as he fell through while Sonic hit the wall behind him and slid to the floor. Silver ran to his side and helped him up "Whoa-ho-ho. Are you good?" Sonic spat some blood on the floor as he moved over to the hole his blast made. "I'm not trying to blast your head off am I?"

"Fair point."

"Care to tell me what that thing I just blasted is?"

"Half of an evil god that went insane and wants to erase every version of you, Shadow and I from all realities."

"Oh, sound like a great guy." He stated leaping through the hole. Silver followed after landing in the tar below. "Eck this blasted tar follows him wherever he goes. He's probably hiding int now." He heard a chunk come from Sonic and saw the cannon change color and a small flame lit at the tip. "Then let's smoke him out." There was a whoosh of fire and the room was quickly engulfed in flames. "What are you doing!? You'll burn us both to death!"

"There is a chance of that yeah but there's also a chance of-" Sonic fired off a round that Silver quickly ducked under and hit a rising and on-fire Mephiles in the chest. "There's also a chance of that!" Mephiles growled and launched himself in jetstream of flaming tar into Silver and Sonic and into the elevator shaft. Sonic fell down into the darkness while Silver grappled with the demon. "YOU WILL DIE TONIGHT HEDGEHOG!" Silver reached out with his min and found the elevator with a mysterious occupant inside.

"I don't think so!" He spat in the god's face and yanked his hand upwards pulling the elevator at high speeds towards them, Silver compressed himself into a door frame as the elevator crashed into Mephiles where he punctured the roof and once again Sonic was waiting for him. "Miss me?" He heard another of Sonic's cannon shots resound inside the elevator before it began to freefall down the shaft, Silver flew after it and kept it from slamming into the ground but that didn't keep the occupants from being tossed about. When he was stable Sonic blasted Mephiles out the door and outside where he fell 250 stories to the courtyard.

Silver flew Sonic and himself down to it where they found both Shadow and Mephiles lying in craters, Shadow was unconscious while Mephiles floated dazed in a pool of tar. "Alright, now that he's dazed I can grab hold of him and seal him away!" Silver started running over to him with Sonic in toe.

"Do you have something to seal him in?" Silver stopped, no he didn't. He had to think of something to do and fast. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time as tendrils shot out of the pool and wrapped him, Sonic, and for good measure Shadow in cocoons. Mephiles growled as he rose from the pit and stalked towards them. "THIS! This is why I refused to fight you! How asinine of me to let you talk me into one… Gah! No matter I'll kill you three now and move onto the next set and not make the same mistake again." He clenched his fist and they felt the tar around them tighter, Sonic's metal parts crunched, Shadow shouted as the sudden pressure woke him with a start, Silver felt and heard his bones breaking and he started to blackout from lack of oxygen.

" _This is it? This is how I go out? In an alternate reality saving a world that's not my own?"_ Were Silver's final thoughts as the black spots in his eyes multiplied and grew. There was a flash of bright golden-white light and the pressure subsided instantly and the hedgehogs fell to the ground. They looked to see who their savior was and saw a super-powered Knuckles standing with the Master Emerald behind him in a hover van driven by Robotnik. The Guardian glowed a bright pink and radiated energy, he stared down Mephiles from across the courtyard who was smoking and hissing and backing away from the super-powered Echidna. "That him?" He asked to seemingly no one, but a large water creature exited the van and silently nodded before engaging Mephiles in combat. "Seems he's not a fan of Chaos."

Silver got to his feet and helped Sonic and Shadow tho theirs. "What are you doing?" Knuckles helped them over to the van, they had a moment to breath as the two gods duked it out. "Lending a hand, we saw the massive explosion from the hideout and before we could think what the cause might be Chaos knocked down the wall of the room we hid the Master Emerald in and said that some god thing had been unleashed."

Robotnik approached the group "We loaded up the Master Emerald into the van and ran here as fast as we could. Would've been here sooner but the people got in the way."

"Right now all three of you sit tight, I'll take care of this!" Silver dashed to the Master Emerald with Sonic and Shadow behind him. They slapped their hands on the Master Emerald and without thinking almost instinctively began to pray.

"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power; power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. Give us the Chaos to Light the Darkness!"

Another blast of golden-white light resounded and when it cleared the trio were lit up in golden Chaos, Silver's fur turned a light gold, Shadow's was a golden lemon and while Sonic still retained his robotic parts they turned golden and he gained a pair of jet thrusters on his back. "Not without us!" Knuckles nodded and as Chaos retreated to let the Supers take care of Mephiles, Silver could swear he saw a flash of "Oh shit, not again." on his face. Knuckles sent Mephiles flying skyward with an uppercut that broke his crystalline jaw; Sonic flew to meet him and let loose a supercharged plasma blast that shattered the tips of his head crystals. Mephiles was sent flying smoking and cracking towards the ground where Knuckles sent him flying back into the air with another punch. He looked skyward and saw Shadow grinning like a madman above him with his fist in the other. He brought them down hard on Mephiles' face and it piledrived the god back into the ground where the force shattered his legs to shards.

As Mephiles lay there in pain Super Silver approached him and with a clasp of his hand gripped him in his psychokinesis. "You may be immortal, you may be a god, you may be able to reset time… but know this while I still exist. You will never win!" Then he cupped his hands at his chest and shot a concentrated beam of Chaos at Mephiles, trapping him. Followed by Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow and Mephiles roared in guttural rage and pain as he was burnt to a crisp by the light. Robotnik ran towards it with something in his hands, a scepter, he opened the top and Mephiles was drug screaming, burning, raging, and mad into it.

" **YOU WILL NEVER BE RID OF ME! MY RAGE WILL LIVE ON! I WILL BE FREE AND DESTROY ALL OF YOU AND THIS WRETCHED WORLD!"**

When the screaming, ranting and roaring ceased Robotnik closed the scepter and sealed it shut before handing it over to Knuckles who blasted it with Chaos Energy forming a Chaos Seal of some sort. "Not within the next couple hundred thousand years." They powered down and took a moment to catch their breath after a moment they looked at each other and started to laugh. It was over, Miles' control of the city was released and Mephiles' control over him was released and he was sealed away. "We did it, we saved the city and the people and ourselves." Silver rejoiced.

Shadow nodded "Yeah, all that's left is to clean up this mess." Robotnik started for the door. "Starting with my son." Silver grabbed him and the other with his powers and started flying them up to Miles' control room. "Sorry Doc, the elevator's out of order at the moment."

When they reached his room, the tar had vanished and Miles was still laying on the desk unconscious. Robotnik ran to his side and held his head "Wake up my boy, wake up, come one! Wake up! Don't let this whole endeavor be for naught!" Miles moaned and slowly opened his eyes, in them the Doctor saw youthfulness, naivety, innocence, and intelligence.

Tails was back.

"Dad? What's going on?" Robotnik grasped his son tight in a hug and started sobbing uncontrollably. "Don't worry my son, you're safe now that's all that matters now." As they held each other Silver took Shadow, Sonic, and Knuckles to the side curious about what was going to happen going forward. "So what happens now? You can't send Tails to jail, he was under Mephiles' influence."

"True but we can't let him lead either, the city won't trust him anymore after tonight." Shadow said looking over at the Robotniks.

"Yeah and we can't blame it on Mephiles' control either, no one will believe that either." Sonic replied.

"Then what do we do?" Knuckles asked. They stared out over the city which had seemed to stop entirely. Then Silver got an idea. "Hey, Shadow… how much of you do the public know?"

He raised his eyebrow "Next to none, I kept myself out of the public eye in the case that I did decide to usurp Mil- I mean Tails."

"Then that's what we do, you take responsibility as leader of the rebellion and ask the people if they wish for you to lead them. I'm sure they'd agree, hundreds saw you in the courtyard earlier."

"They also saw you, why not make you the leader? And what makes you think that the people will want someone to lead them, as far as they know I'll just take control like Tails did."

A new voice joined the conversation. "Then we give them what they want, me." They turned to see Tails standing at the edge of the broken windows staring out over the city. "I brought this on myself, I need to take responsibility for my actions and own up to it." Ivo turned his son to face him. "You can't! They'll kill you! I just got you back, I don't want to lose you again!"

"Then what would you have me do? Runaway and hide?" "No, no, no of course not but-"

"I'll lead." The father and son turned to Shadow. "I'll ask the people if they want me to lead and reform this city. I'll tell them that you died in the explosion that came when Mephiles was unleashed, your body was instantly immolated in the explosion. There'll be no questions and it will allow the two of you to re-enter society under new names and live a new life."

The Robotniks looked at each other and nodded "Sounds like a plan." Shadow nodded turning his attention to Sonic and Knuckles. "As for you two, Knuckles can now return to Angel Island and carry on with his guardian duties. And Sonic… I'm sure we can tell the truth about you and fabricate a few things for you to come in and save the day from."

"Thank you Shadow, I've been missing my home for a long time now."

"It may not convince everyone but at least I get to save the day again."

Then he turned to Silver. "As for you… Thank you for your help, this city, hell this whole reality, is forever in your debt."

"Do you want me to stick around for a bit? Maybe help with the cleanup?" Shadow smiled and laughed slightly. "No Silver I think we'll be fine on our own. We've got a long road ahead of us but we'll make it through." Silver smiled and nodded as he pulled out his Chaos Emerald "Completely forgot I had this. Guess it's time to go then…" The others waved at him while he opened a portal behind him.

"Good luck out there kid!"

"Thank you for saving me!"

"Goodbye and Good luck!"

As Silver stepped through the portal into parts unknown, not knowing if the next stop would be his home or some other reality. He left knowing one thing.

He was Silver the Hedgehog, he freed a city and reunited a father and son, he brought hope to the world, and he fought a god of time and space and won twice.

He was Silver the Hedgehog.


End file.
